Running With the Vampires Chapter 1
by Alice Veil
Summary: Chapter 1 of the best thing I've ever written - English Twilight. Different Characters.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 – New Home

"Are you _joking?_" my mouth fell open –this wasn't my dream house, _this_ was far from dreamy.

"Annabelle, dear, close your mouth."

"_Anna_, Mum." Of course, Mum was always worried what the neighbours would say if they were peering nosily out the window and spotted the new family next door, and discovered that they had a deranged daughter who didn't like their perfect little town and was determined to leave. And she would never call me Anna like everyone else did.

When Mum and Dad explained to me the little town of Legg and the house we were moving to, they described with so much enthusiasm, excitement and splendour that I wouldn't have been surprised if it was a mansion. They described Legg as 'the most perfect place in the world, everyone is so friendly…' and they claimed the house would be 'spacious, beautiful, the garden's nice; too, it's everything we could ever dream of…'

There wasn't much to like here; just forests, forests, a lake, and then more forests. I should have appreciated it like dad told me. I answered back, of course, why waste time now when I had the rest of my time here to do it? Instead, I pulled my battered copy of 'Twilight' out of my bag and read that for the 2 ½ hour drive down to Legg –our new home.

A roar of an engine told me the removal van had arrived, and the slamming of car doors announced that Grace and Erin were getting out of the car. I got out of the car, too, and walked round to the boot to help Dad.

"Come on, Anna, life here will be great," Dad inquired, getting a box out and handing it to me. "Try not to break this box, please. Cheer up, Anna. You're going to a great school, Grace has found a good job and Erin will make new friends. Plus, I saved you the biggest room." He added with a wink, hoping to cheer me up. But he knew Grace would object.

Oh, joy! Just what I needed; a conflict with Grace over who gets the biggest room. As if life here wasn't bad enough, I'd only been here for about 5 minutes and was already considering escaping.

But, I probably would get the biggest room; I could throw the biggest and worst tantrum if I didn't get the room I wanted. Some man who called himself a doctor told me that I might have a minor case of ADHD, but I shouted at him, because in other words, ADHD means a hyper kid who seeks attention.

I didn't think I had ADHD, just some kind of really bad temper which caused me to pull strops and throw things and not pay attention to anything.

I smiled weakly at Dad, and then turned to the house, one hand around the box and one hand on my hip. I sighed, I would _have_ to find a way to cope. Mum and Dad could have at least bought a bigger house.

You see, the problem with parents is that they think they're doing everything the right way, and they think they know what is best for you. But if Mum and Dad thought that the best way to turn over a new leaf was by exiling us all to here, then they should probably think again. Some parents.

I sighed again as I stared up at the small semi-detached Victorian house we now had to live in. It was red brick, and had revolting grimy windows. There was two floors and four bedrooms, one on the ground floor which Erin had already claimed.

I swung my bag over my shoulder as I trudged inside the house –all but empty except for Mum, Grace, Erin and the removal men.

As I stepped inside, Mum came rushing up to me, a small box in her hands.

"Here," she said breathlessly, dumping the box in my hands and relieving me of the one I had carried in. "Take this to your room; it's got your stuff in it. Try not to drop anything." She seemed to notice the quizzical expression on my face as she realised I had no clue where my room was –all I knew was that it was the biggest.

"Ah, up the stairs, first room on the right." She mumbled before rushing away into what I guessed would be the kitchen.

I stomped noisily up the stairs, and into the room I figured was mine.

Dad was right; it was the biggest…and also the emptiest. I placed the box on the wooden floorboards, and smiled; I liked the floorboards. Just then, someone knocked on the door. Without time to reply or move over to the door to answer it, two removal men barged in carrying my bed and some more boxes.

"Over there," I said, pointing to the wall beside the window. The removal man carrying my bed placed it where I said, and the other handed me the box. I placed it on the floor, and then walked over to lie down on the bed, sans mattress, as the men left the room.

Over the next hour, more removal men came into my room uninvited, carrying more boxes carrying more of my stuff. I didn't notice them; I just noticed the small but growing pile of boxes against one wall of the room.

I didn't have many things, but I did have a lot of books. Each of the cardboard boxes was labelled clearly, three boxes were filled with my clothes, one with my shoes, another was filled with miscellaneous, and the rest of them were labelled 'Books'.

Eventually, I rolled over and got my iPod out of my bag and turned it on, placing the headphones into my ears. The first song that came on was 'Hard to Live in the City' by Albert Hammond Jr. I laughed without humour at the irony of it –it wasn't hard to live in the city, it was hard to live in a small town.

I was slipping in and out of consciousness, one moment awake the next asleep. My iPod drowned out all other sounds; the loud, heavy beats of a particular rock song cutting out the sound of Dad's voice as he poked his head round the door.

I ignored him, and I ignored the other removal men bringing in my bedside table, my wardrobe and various other things.

I was being cynical, but I really didn't care. I didn't care that I was hurting people's feelings, either.

The wooden planks in my bed were hurting my back, so I searched through the boxes until I found the right one. I laid down the mattress and placed the dusty pillows over the top, not bothering that they were dirty.

I thought about sleeping, and I started to think more about the house around me. I sighed, the house was empty, and I felt empty. There was no furniture, no fire in the grate, (I wasn't even sure if we had one yet) no food in the fridge…just a lot of boxes and a lot of dust. It would take a lot to make this house a home. Now I sounded like a stupid Homebase advert.

I felt the depression slide over me as I once more slipped into unconsciousness, this time I stayed asleep.

The next day was a Tuesday, exactly one week until I started at my new school. I didn't feel ready to go to school, let alone a new one.

I pulled back my bed covers, and discovered I was fully dressed. As I got out of bed, I yawned loudly and decided to see what was for breakfast. I could smell bacon and eggs as I dragged myself downstairs –my favourite. Mum must have gone out early to buy them, and must have dug through a lot of boxes to find the frying pan and plates. I felt slightly guilty as I realised that I hadn't been particularly enthusiastic about the house. Plus she and Dad had tried to make it better for me here, they gave me the biggest room and cooked me bacon.

I entered the kitchen with my nose in the air, the scent of bacon wafting up my nose. The kitchen definitely needed work doing, at the moment it was just a mess of cupboards, except for our large, silver fridge which towered about the rest of the kitchen.

I ate my breakfast, eggs and bacon, in peace, then skulked back up the stairs and into my room. I groaned to myself as I thought about the day ahead; I would have to clean, tidy and decorate the house as well as this room.

Rummaging through the boxes I found my old silver purse, and pulled out the change for ten pounds. In another box I found a clean hoodie, so I took the old one off and pulled the new one on over my head.

I skipped down the stairs two at a time, and nearly crashed into Erin at the bottom.

"Anna, where are you going?" she demanded, her eyebrows raised.

"Out," I mumbled, tying to push past her. She blocked me by sticking her skinny leg out.

"Out _where?_" she prodded. Gosh, she was so nosy!

"The paint shop."

"Ooh, sounds like fun!" the funny thing was, she wasn't being sarcastic. Ah, the joys of being a 7-year-old; everything is interesting.

"No, you can't come, Erin." I sighed, pushing past her and heading out the front door.

There were already a few customers at the paint shop by the time I got there. I scored the aisles for about twenty minutes, until I found the colour I wanted; a pale blue.

But as I took out the money to pay for two large tins of paint, I spotted something that made me stop and stare.

It was a man, though he looked very young. He was about twenty, and had the palest skin I had ever seen. His dirty blonde hair framed his face well, and the colour of it brought out the green of his eyes and the handsomeness of his face. He was, without a doubt, extremely good-looking, and as he bent down to pay for a small pot of paint his eyes glanced in my direction.

I flushed, and looked away.

Funnily enough, though, I couldn't _help_ looking at him, but I knew I had to stop staring. Realising a second too late that my mouth was hanging open, I hastily closed it, blushing once more.

Before I left the shop, I gazed back at the mysterious person, who was smiling coyly –but a nice, kind coy. I smiled back, trying to match his coy one. Then he winked at me, and I decided that it was time to leave the shop before the man gave me a heart attack.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – New School.

The rest of the week passed pretty quickly, and I managed to sort out my room; I painted the walls the pale blue I bought, I varnished the ancient floor boards, Dad bought me some shelves and I painted them white. On one day, two days before school, Dad stumbled in at Noon with a large white bookshelf for me.

I appreciated these gestures, but it wasn't enough to fill the whole depression had gnawed away at in my stomach. I put on a happy face in front of Mum and Dad and Erin and Grace, but maybe it wasn't enough, because the evening before school Mum came into my room while I was reading. She had a serious look on her face as she sat at the end of my bed, reaching for my hand.

"Annabelle," she began, but I cut her off.

"_Anna_, Mum. My name is Anna." I said, stubbornly.

"Ok then, Annabelle," she replied, deliberately, "I just wanted a little chat with you, that's all. Now, I know it's hard for you, moving and going to a new school. Your father and I know how much you miss London…" I laughed humourlessly; she didn't anything about how much I missed London. She raised her eyebrows, and then carried on.

"You see, sweetheart, when I was a little older than you I had to move away from my home, too. I moved to a little town near Cambridge, and that's where I met your father; in one of the bakeries there. How I missed me old house…"

"And the moral of this story is…?" I waved my arms slightly, gesturing for her to move on.

"The moral is that moving to that little town was the best thing I have ever done –it was where I met your Dad."

"Urgh, Mum," I said, pushing her off the bed, "If I wanted a soppy ending I would have borrowed Cinderella off of Erin."

She raised her eyebrows again, which irritated me.

"The point of my little speech is that you never know what might happen here, it might turn out good. I'll bet you have fun." She stroked my cheek, and I edged away from her.

"I doubt it," I mumbled, wriggling away from her hand and her bright pink nails, which looked more like talons.

"Come on, don't be a spoil sport!" she said, enthusiasm in her voice, like an American soccer mum before a big game.

"Mum, don't say that ever again."

"Ok, ok. But what I'm trying to say is that… don't ruin it here for Erin and Grace, please don't ruin it for Dad, and don't ruin it for yourself, either. Don't be moody everyday and put everyone in a bad mood. I know you might feel a little under the weather from time to time, but please keep it to yourself."

I felt like a misbehaved child being scolded by an adult, I felt terrible, as though Mum and Dad had been talking behind my back; discussing me.

"Ok," was all I could manage to whisper, my throat was suddenly very dry.

Mum stood up, brushing her thighs. She stooped to peck my cheek, before heading out the room.

"'Night, Mum." I mumbled, a small smile forming on my lips.

"Night, Annabelle." She flashed me a slightly bigger smile, then turned and disappeared out the door.

_Greenglades High School._ _Greenglades frigging High School. This is where they are sending me?_

As I have said before, Mum and Dad had some serious parental issues. First, we move to Legg, and then they send me to some crappy secondary school where I have to do my GCSE's and spend two years slaving away in classrooms. Ah, all was good. _Not!_

My first impressions were that it looked oddly Edwardian/American, though the large wrought iron gates topped with a Latin motto looked like a prison. The building itself was made out of red brick; though not as dark as my house, with large steps leading up to what I guessed was the main doors. It wasn't very small; it had about five stories and a lot of land. Most of this land looked like a park, and I spotted two signs pointing to round the back of the school, each labelled 'Yard'.

I tried to speak to fellow students, asking different people for directions to the main office. Mostly they ignored me, whilst the others just stared in awe. God, helpful kids this lot were.

I smoothed the front of my navy blouse, rolled up the sleeves of my grey cardigan and tried again. As before, no one would look twice at me, no one stopped to talk.

Just as my patience was running out and I was about to lose my temper, a blonde girl with a slight natural tan and a huge smile on her face wearing a pink dress rushed up to me, holding out her hand. I took it cautiously, wondering who the hell she was and why she was shaking my hand when everyone else was ignoring me.

"Hey, I'm Kelsey Pryce. You must be Annabelle Rivkins, right?"

"Anna Rivkins," I corrected.

"Right! You're going into Year 10, aren't you?"

"Yeah, that's right…"

"Good, Mr. Burgham told me about you, so I thought it would be nice if I showed you around the school. It's only a small school, but it's easy to get lost. Soon you'll know everyone, and hopefully we can be friends! Wouldn't that be great?"

"Who's –" but she was already chatting again, pulling out what looked like a map of the school.

"This," she said, pointing to a place on the map, "is Mr. Burgham's office. He's our Head teacher. He's really nice, you'll like him. Follow me, and I'll take you to the office to sign in." she smiled at me, her white teeth showing. She would be pretty, if she weren't so damn annoying and didn't speak this much.

She lead me up the stairs, and through the doors, which opened into a corridor. The corridor was long, but not very wide. On my right, a stable door painted dark blue was opened slightly, a sign saying 'Office –sign in here' on the door.

Kelsey walked in through the door, and so did a few other students. As I entered after Kelsey, about five students walked out.

The Office was around the same size as my bedroom, and in one corner there was a desk occupied by young receptionist with perfectly manicured nails and immaculate dark black hair. In front of her on the desk was what seemed to be a list, and as I approached the desk I realised that the list was the names of all the students at the school, and about sixty of those names were highlighted.

Kelsey bent down to highlight her name, and then turned to talk to me. The other students highlighted their names and then walked out. I edged forward, not sure what to do.

"We highlight our names; it's the schools way of knowing that we're here, and not bunking." She giggled, flipping her blonde hair over her shoulder.

So I highlighted my name, and then spoke to the lady behind the desk who I guessed was the secretary.

"Uh… excuse me, Ms. Brett?" I asked, reading off her nametag. She looked up, her finger tapping away at the keys on her computer's keypad.

"Yes? Oh, you must be Annabelle Rivkins, our new student. Well, here is your timetable," she muttered, handing me a piece of paper, "I hope Kelsey has been telling you about the school." I nodded, and then walked out the room.

I stared at my time-table, which seemed pretty fine, except for the double P.E. later on this afternoon. My first lesson was English, which I had come top of the class in Year 9, then I had ICT, which I was fairly good at, then I had a break.

Later on when we were settled into English, Mr. Scott, our teacher, called me to the front of the class. I cringed, I'd rather have resumed my seat at the back of the room and done my work quietly.

"This is Annabelle Rivkins –"

"Err, Anna, Sir." Several people snickered, but I ignored them.

"Ok, _Anna_. Anyway, I was wondering if you would like to tell the class a little about yourself." _On the contrary, Sir, I wouldn't. _But obviously I didn't say that to his stubbly face.

"Um… I like reading, and I like writing." I sounded like a retard, surely I could do better than this.

"Who's your favourite author?" someone shouted out from the front row, it was a boy with ginger hair and glasses; what a nerd.

"Simon, let the girl finish, please." Mr. Scott said, pointing a bony old finger in the direction of the boy who had spoken.

_Simon, _I scoffed,_ what a name for a nerd._

"It's ok," I murmured, then I turned towards the ginger boy, Simon, "my favourite author is Stephenie Meyer, but I also like JK Rowling. I can't really decide who I like most."

"Geek," someone else muttered, and I felt my face blush scarlet.

"Shut up, _Simone_." Someone retaliated, and I realised with gratitude it was Kelsey.

"That's enough…Simon, Kelsey." Mr. Scott scolded, and when his back was turned I mouthed a silent 'Thank you!' at Kelsey. She smiled, and winked in return.

When Mr. Scott let me sit down again after answering his tiresome questions, he passed around the list of books we had to read this term, because at the end we would have to write an essay on one of them.

The books were fairly easy; 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows', 'The Little Princess', 'Oliver Twist', 'Gulliver's Travels' and 'Moby-Dick' and a few more, I had read most of them anyway.

My next lesson after English was ICT, and then a break. I was OK at ICT, because I had a lot of practice after Mum gave in on my birthday one year and bought me a laptop.

By the time break came I had learnt this much; that the school only had around 368 pupils, and there was two classes for each year. I was in Kelsey's class, which was 10B, meaning we had every lesson together.

She told me about her friends in 10A, whom she said I would meet at Lunch when we sat with them and in Music, in which both Year 10 classes had together. I tried to look grateful, which failed so I just smiled.

During break I tried to find out as much as I could on the school and Kelsey, which was easy enough for her to talk about. I learnt that her favourite colour was pink, she hadn't had a boyfriend since she caught her last one cheating, and her parents said they would put her in private education if her results and test paper scores weren't improving.

"Same here! My Mum and Dad are all for putting me into a school with nuns and stuff!" I had said, glad that we finally had something in common.

But as break came to an end, I began to realise much later than I should have done that all Kelsey could do was talk, look in the mirror, and talk. But, then again, she was the only 'friend' I had at this school, so I might as well put up with her… and she did stick up for me today in English.

After break came Maths and Science, which I sucked at. In Maths I sat in the corner, wishing the teacher wouldn't look at me or ask me a question. Luckily for me she didn't, she probably thought that because I was new I couldn't handle a question. But I was fine with it.

"Annabelle, we have Lunch now, come on," Kelsey said, getting out of her seat and swinging her bag over her shoulder.

I picked up my bag, and dragging it out of the classroom, I set off down the corridor.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 - Strangers

My Mum had packed me sandwiches and an apple to eat, but also gave me a shiny two-pound coin just in case I got hungry. Dad didn't know that Mum had given me two-pound, so he gave me another two-pound coin to buy myself some lunch. I smiled at my scheme, _how_ Mum and Dad could be so silly as to give me money and think I would spend it on food I didn't know.

I waited politely in the Lunch queue while Kelsey bought her lunch, a cheese toasty, pocketed the two two-pound coins with another sly smile, and followed Kelsey to sit with her friends at their usual table.

As we were a few feet from the Lunch queue, I inclined my head to the left, and gasped.

I couldn't help but stare.

There were four of them in total, three females and one male.

One of the females had waist-length silvery blonde hair, and the most astonishing clear blue eyes, like you could swim in them. She was laughing, and when she laughed her lips parted and a set of gleaming white teeth were revealed, shining and resplendent. The effect of her light hair on her chalk-white skin made her look like an angel, or a wintry ghost.

Next to her was an oriental-looking female with shoulder length silky sleek black hair that you just wanted to touch. Her green eyes stood out from her pale skin and from beneath her curtain of dark, straight hair. The contrast was spectacular, and hard to tear your eyes from.

Across from her was the male. He had short, but soft, chocolate brown hair and exquisite liquid gold eyes. He was definitely the most handsome boy I had ever seen. His features were straight, and his lips were pale. He looked younger than the rest, as did the girl with silver-blonde hair, the others seemed at least sixteen or seventeen, maybe he and the girl were my age?

Although they were all extremely beautiful, and strange, in their own ways, the most extraordinary was the female on the left of the male. Her flaming red hair cascaded down her back like long, wavy flames, and when she tossed it over her shoulder, the sunlight reflected off of her brilliant hair, casting a fantastic glow and nearly blinding me. Her blood-red lips were smooth and full, and she had the same green, almond-shape eyes as the oriental female. She had the slim, willowy figure of a catwalk model, and the elegance and grace of a ballerina, she was _perfect_.

Though they looked completely different, if you looked closer they seemed similar, like they had picked up each others habits, or something. They had the same elegance and grace about them, even the boy, the same pale skin, and the same blank look when they caught people staring at them in awe. They reminded me of the young man I had seen in the paint shop, he had the same air about him as these people did. They were like him, _exactly_ like him.

I turned away quickly; these people were so inhumanly beautiful.

"Um, Annabelle?" Kelsey said quietly, not hearing my scowl, but still trying to follow my gaze. Her eyes finally rested on the four beautiful people in front of us. "Oh…" she caught on quickly. "They're the Pennison family. Well, Harriet, Gabriella and Tom are. Claudia, Anthony and Nicholas are 'friends' though they still call themselves a family." Kelsey saw my confused expression and then started to elaborate.

"Harriet is the really pretty one with ginger hair," she said, her tone accented with envy. "Gabriella is the light-blonde one, Tom is the boy, obviously, and Claudia is the Japanese girl. Anthony and Nicholas pick them up from school and sometimes you see some of them around town together."

"Don't they have parents?" I asked, though it was none of my business. Kelsey seemed happy to oblige.

"They have adopted parents, if that's what you mean," I nodded, so she continued. "They're called Eve and Nathan. Eve has her own shop in Worthing, and Nathan is a writer. Eve sells her paintings and sometimes Nathan's work." She spoke about them as if she knew them, as if she knew them well enough to explain their life story, which was what she was practically doing.

"Has he written anything I know?" I asked, my interest true.

"Probably not," Kelsey scoffed. "He gets paid a lot though, for a writer who doesn't write anything that's any good." I felt sorry then for this Nathan, he didn't deserve to be scoffed at. Whatever he wrote, it was probably very good.

We carried on walking until we got to a table where several other people sat; Kelsey's friends. Kelsey slid into a seat next to a girl with skin problems and stared up at me, wanting me to sit down.

"Okay, this is everyone I was telling you about earlier. So this is Danielle," she pointed to the girl with skin problems, "this is Louise," she pointed to the girl sitting opposite her with dark hair, "and this is James and Carrie." She pointed to the clearly-related blonde people sitting either side of Louise. "They're twins!" she added. _That_ much was obvious.

"You know, Tom Pennison is in our class. His sisters are all in Year 11, except for Harriet," again, her tone was accented with envy as was Kelsey's, "she's in Sixth Form." She added, knowingly.

I waved and muttered a quiet 'Hey," at each of them, then turned my head back to the table of beautiful people.

I gasped and nearly dropped my lunch tray. Each one of the four people was staring at me with the same malicious glint in their entrancing eyes, like I was something they were going to eat, like a lion after he caught the lamb, before he was about to go in for the kill. I could have sworn that the red haired girl- Harriet- muttered something, because Claudia the Japanese girl was muttering something back. I know I couldn't hear what they we saying, but it seemed like it was something terrible and freaky because they were smiling menacingly at me. It was a terrifying experience. I shuddered, and turned back to the table, my face pale and my heart pounding loud enough for the world to hear.

I know it seems stupid, but when I looked at the Pennison family, I sensed something –something _more_. As if they weren't human, like they could put a spell over the people surrounding them, because it had worked on me. I think it was the way the walked or maybe it was their timeless beauty or their grace and elegance that made me sense this.

I had a sudden sense of Déjà vu as I realised that maybe this was how Bella felt on _her_ first day of school, when she had spotted Edward. The way he looked at her, the way he acted towards her… it was too much to handle on her first day.

"Annabelle, are you alright? You look ill, should I take you to Matron? You haven't even touched your food." Kelsey asked, I realised I was day-dreaming again.

"No, I'm fine," I replied. She was being polite, but it was still annoying. "

You know what?" I said, standing up. "I'm done, I'll see you lot later." I picked up my lunch and carried it to the bins, where I disposed of it.

It wasn't until I was in my next lesson, Spanish, that I really started to think about the Pennison's. I wasn't paying much attention to the work I should've been doing, and the teacher didn't seem to mind that half of the class were messing around, so I had a little time to myself.

I felt like Bella, trying to discover what the family really _were_. It was obvious they were not human, but vampires? That seemed too much. But, then again, they had the pale skin, the blinding beauty, the elegance, and the way they looked at humans.

There I was, arguing with myself again.

Although I hated to admit, I had a feeling that I could be right about the Pennison's.

Could the Pennison family be the same as Edward and the Cullens? Could they possibly be _vampires_?


End file.
